Chanel Paris Fashion Week Autumn/Winter 2016-17

Chanel gave the feeling of a couture salon, and was entirely in the manner that Mademoiselle Chanel would have presented her new season clothes in her atelier during the Fifties. Between this and Saint Laurent's couture show last night - presented without music, and every look announced with a number, old-school style (by the same speaker who did so for Monsieur Yves Saint Laurent's shows) - designers are feeling a touch nostalgic; and it stands to reason, during a time of much debate surrounding the current fashion show schedule and format. And yet, Lagerfeld likes nothing more than to tap into a 21st-century youth market; pin-up Pharrell Williams sat front row in a frosted tweed Chanel jacket - although surely what he had his eye on here, from this morning's line-up, was the box fresh white sweatshirt that fastened at the back with chunky gold Chanel buttons.

This was Chanel for a new generation, and it neatly chimed with the elevated streetwear trend that's storming the autumn/winter 2016 runways. Even Lagerfeld's tweed suiting with its frayed deconstructed edges appeared tougher and more robust, in one instance it came with a waterproof nylon khaki shrug, made for the real world and ready for urban streets and changing weather fronts. From the quilted drawstring jacket on Gigi Hadid, to the padded leather hoody on Kendall Jenner, this was less ladylike, with utility luxe at the fore. There were gabardine trench coats and waterproof macs, shooting jackets rendered in denim and sweater dresses punched in grommets. A two-finger peace sign also popped up, outlined in diamanté posing as a belt buckle and elsewhere worked into prints alongside blown-up images of gardenia. But the hit print to take away is the one of Choupette's face, Lagerfeld's pampered cat, spotted on lurex pleated skirts.